Teachers' presence at World Telugu Conference draws flak

Hyderabad: School students in the state schools will miss their classes during the five-day World Telugu Conference in the city as the government has asked the teachers to attend the global meet. The Telangana teachers’ association, however, is against the decision to invite all the teachers to attend the World Telugu Conference for five days. 

Nearly 25,000 teachers from government schools will attend the WTC which will start from December 15. According to the associations, the government should have invited only the Telugu teachers for the conference as it is a crucial time for schools to finish the syllabus.

M Ravinder from the Telangana Progressive Teachers’ Federation said, “It is a general call given by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao to invite all the teachers in the state to the conference. So far, we have not received any specific invitation from the government. It is not clearly mentioned anywhere that whether schools will have holiday as all the teachers will be attending the  conference.”

“It will be difficult for us if they invite all the teachers as we have planned to finish the syllabus by this month end. December has many holidays. If all teachers are invited then we will miss important working days,” he added.

Chava Ravi, state general secretary of the United Teachers Federation, said, “As there will be no public gathering at the World Telugu Conference, all the teachers are invited to attend the conference for mobilisation which is not correct as children will miss the classes. The purpose for this conference is different so only Telugu teachers and poets should be invited.” He added, “It was made clear in the meeting on Tuesday that 25,000 teachers should attend the conference without disturbing the regular school curriculum.”